ghali غالي
Algerian Darja · adjective
“ghali” (غالي) is an adjective in Algerian Darja meaning expensive, costly.
Meanings
- expensive, costly
- dear, precious
Usage
Ghali is the usual adjective for a high price: koulchi ghali (everything is expensive). The feminine is ghalya. The plural is ghalyin or ghalyine. The opposite is rkhis (cheap). As in English, it can also describe a person one holds dear: nta ghali 3liya (you are dear to me). The corresponding verb is ghla (to become expensive): ghlat l-khodra (vegetable prices went up). The noun for high cost is l-ghla. In speech, many people pronounce the gh like a guttural r. It is sometimes written rhali.
Example
البطاطا ولات غالية بزاف هاد العام
l-batata wellat ghalya bezzaf had l-3am
“Potatoes have become very expensive this year.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ghali” but also “ghaly”, “8ali” and “ghalya”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.
Type “ghali” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “expensive, costly”; “precious, dear to the heart”: ghali in Moroccan.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “expensive, high-priced”; “precious, dear”: ghali in Tunisian.